


Understatement

by unwindmyself



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-12
Updated: 2013-03-12
Packaged: 2017-12-05 02:16:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/717709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unwindmyself/pseuds/unwindmyself
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes all you really need to hold a friendship together is an understanding of someone's dry sense of humor and a willingness to listen to them go on, even when what they're saying is by all standards impossible.  Oh, and well-aged liquor helps too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Understatement

**Author's Note:**

> Sometime in season 1 of _Dollhouse_.  
>  Post-2.17 of _Buffy_. (And nudged forward in time to line up.)

When her phone starts to ring, Adelle is already half-undressed: shoes placed back in the closet, blouse unbuttoned.  She picks up with one hand, begins to take her jewelry off with the other, and she’s snapping _just_ a little.  “Topher, I can’t possibly imagine what could be so important you need to bother me at this hour,” she says without looking at the incoming number.

There’s just a low, warm laugh, decidedly not Topher’s, and it’s one that makes her laugh as well.  “I’m dreadfully sorry if I’m interrupting anything.”

“Oh, not at all, Rupert,” she smiles.  “I apologize for the less-than-civil greeting.”

“Perfectly all right,” Giles chuckles wanly.  “Topher, he’s your – your coworker, yes?”  He feels that he remembers the name.

“Yes,” Adelle confirms, tucking the phone between her shoulder and her ear and beelining for her liquor cabinet.  “Our young programmer.”  She’s never said exactly _what_ gets programmed at her place of business, but Giles assumes it’s something technical and therefore nothing he’d wish to understand.  “He… tends towards impatience when it comes to his discoveries, no matter how irrelevant they are.”

“It’s good of you to put up with it,” Giles says.  He knows her well enough to know that however terse she may have been, she’d never have ignored the call altogether.

“He isn’t the easiest to tolerate at times,” she replies.  “But he doesn’t have many people willing to try, and it’s harmless enough.”  Of course, that’s Adelle-speak for _I’m really quite fond of the ridiculous boy_ , but one of the bases of hers and Giles’ friendship is a mutual talent for understatement.

“Mm, yes,” he murmurs, and the clinking of ice in their glasses is the only sound for a moment.

“But anyhow,” Adelle says.  “To what do I owe this call?”  Other than the fact that when he’s nursing a drink, it makes him think of her.  They both know the formula.

“Not – any one thing,” he mutters.  “It had just been a while, and it seemed the thing to do, and – I’m allowed, aren’t I?”

Adelle nods slowly.  “Right, yes.”  She pauses to sip her own drink.  “You don’t at all need advice, of course.”

“Not – exactly,” Giles sighs, his voice darkening.

She frowns.  “Is something the matter, Rupert?”

Before he speaks, Giles takes a drink, fortifying himself.  “That was one of the other things I’d called about, too,” he sighs.  “The – the woman we’d spoken of, Jenny.  She’s – dead.  Murdered.”

Adelle is silent.  “I’m so sorry.”  She refills her glass, hesitating before she asks.  “You’re sure of that?  The… murder.”

“I am,” he mutters.  “I even know who did it.” He’s all but whispering when he continues.  “It was all my fault, Adelle.”

“How can you think that?” she exclaims.  “I’m sure it –”

“It was,” he insists, hesitating before he continues.  “There’s – quite a lot about my life that I should explain to you in order for this to make sense.”

She sighs deeply.  “Perhaps so.  I should come to your Sunnydale,” she says.  “I should – I should explain some things to you as well, and I’m sure it’s better for you not to be alone in a time like this.”  She’s beginning to formulate a plan of sorts, wishing she hadn’t waited for something like this to necessitate such things.

“I suppose it might be easier to get into face-to-face,” Giles agrees.  “Just, do be careful in traveling, all right?”

“Of course,” she promises.  As unwise as this reveal may be, recommendations are how clients are made, after all, and she feels she has to make the offer even if she can't exactly imagine him taking her up on it.

 

* * *

  

Once their stories are told, they’re just staring at each other in stunned silence a while.  Giles can’t believe that computers and machines can do _that_ ; Adelle can’t believe that demons and things even exist.  They’re not surprised, of course, that they’ve been so good at keeping these secrets, but they’re a bit shocked otherwise.

“I’ll admit,” she finally muses, nodding to the bottle in front of them and silently getting permission to refill her glass, “That it does explain a lot of things.”

He nods.  “So, you see, punishing Angelus legally would be impossible.”

“But your – your Slayer may well be emotionally compromised,” she nods.  “We could offer you some assistance, if you require it.”  Giles must look terrified, because she feels compelled to clarify, “Leaving your girl be, of course.  She’d not sign on for it, and we don’t imprint children.”

“Buffy’s hardly a child,” he corrects.

“Teenagers,” she amends.  “Anyone who’s not old enough in the eyes of this country to vote isn’t old enough to undergo the process.”

“What would you suggest, then?”

“Perhaps – we could give you Jenny back, for a time.”

Giles frowns.  “It wouldn’t be _her_ , and she, whoever she was, wouldn’t have the magicks in her.  It’s not so simple as that.”

“But she could assist in other ways,” Adelle presses.  “If not the fighting, at least that.”

“…how?” he asks timidly.

“Closure,” she murmurs.  “For you.”  Dead loved ones aren’t an unheard-of request for the Dollhouse, and Adelle’s prepared to comp this engagement.  “A last – well, whatever you’d like.”

He sighs again.  “It would be an empty experience.  Any forgiveness or – or assurances wouldn’t be from _her_.”

“It would be the next best thing,” she says. 

“I’m not sure, Adelle,” Giles frowns.  “I don’t even know that I’d be able to call another woman her name.”

“Just think it over,” she says softly.

“I will,” he promises, and maybe that's enough.


End file.
